by Mark Angelides
IN light of the Harvey Weinstein revelations, a mass-media campaign has been launched whose spearhead is the hashtag “#metoo.” Ostensibly it is a way of highlighting prevalent sexism and the abuse of women. But examining the idea behind it, does it actually do anything at all? Or is it a waste of time and resources that is taking away from actual programs that might make progress in this area?
For example, I would never force myself on a woman, nor would I ever use sexist language or abuse someone with sexist slurs or innuendo. I am fully aware that there are a small minority of men (and women) who DO do these things. Having #metoo plastered everywhere neither impacts me in terms of my awareness, nor would it stop me from engaging in these practices (because I would never do them in the first place).
So let’s consider a person who does engage in disgusting practices, let’s call him “Harvey.” Harvey abuses women, up to and including sexual assault. He has been doing it for years with a certain amount of “protection” form those around him (let’s call them “Hillaries” for example). All of a sudden, the #metoo campaign turns up. Does Harvey suddenly realize the error of his ways? Do the scales fall from his eyes and he becomes a model citizen? And what of the Hillaries? Do they suddenly understand that the sexual abuse that has been taking place all these years is wrong? Of course not! They already know it’s wrong!
I can see only one value to the hashtag campaign. And that is to let abused women (and men) know that they are not alone in suffering. But isn’t this something that should have been addressed already through outreach groups or counseling? Let’ be completely honest…a hashtag campaign is no substitute (nor help) for actual assistance and action.
We hear a lot about how “we need to do something.” “We?” What is it that “we” have to do? I assume that “we” do not abuse women (or men). I also assume that “we” would not put up with other people abusing those weaker than them. So what is it precisely that “we” have to do? This is the language of distraction that kicks important issues into the “long grass.” It is all very well emoting and “signaling” support, but it does nothing whatsoever for those actually impacted.
If “we” (and I include those specifically that are promoting the virtues of a hashtag campaign) really want to do something about ANY issue…the first step should always be to ignore distractions. This kind of virtue signalling is pointless, ineffectual, distracting and helps no one.
#Me Too – Is This the Most Useless Campaign Ever?
Views:
Useless” ??
Me thinks not.
Everyone has forgotten about Vegas now that that their ‘story’ quickly fell apart. Which served IT’S purpose, too: A slate of new gunlaws, all violating the 2nd Amendment, based on yet another quickly proven lie.
But hey….what’s new?
One of the problems with hashtag campaigns is that the ones getting any media attention are the ones the bad guys want us to see — and they bolster those by counting any use of that hashtag even ones that aren’t related at all. A conversation like
A: I hate Hitlery Clinton!
B: MeToo!
C: MeToo!!
would give the pro-Hitlery MeToo campaign 2 extra voices — and if the “I hate Hitlery – MeToo” campaign started generating billions of posts, they’d still say those are all Hitlery followers belonging to the other MeToo campaign — essentially furthering the idea that if you aren’t one of them, you must be very careful about speaking your mind because everyone disagrees with you.
I wonder when some genius will come up with the idea of using “#include” to push a LGBTXYZ-“inclusion” campaign and then claim all C and C++ programmers in the world are with them (In C and C++, just about every application starts with a few statements like
#include
#include
to tell the compiler to load some code from libraries — there must be billions of references to #include on the net even without anyone turning that statement into a hashtag).
It would probably be the most successful “hashtag” ever, with billions of references within seconds of its first use. (Same goes for #define, #if, #else, #endif, #undef and a few others)
#define might actually be usable for sanity… You want to call me an Anti-Semite because I’m Anti-Nuttyyahu? #define Anti-Semite! You want to claim I’m misogynist because I’m anti-Hitlery? #define Misogyny! You think I’m a racist because I think Obama is a moron? #define Racism!
There we go… Not the best hashtag by a long stretch – but clearly billions of people are already talking about it… I don’t care that they’re all speaking C and not English.
Useless its not. You are witnesses to a purge.
Podesta’s e-mails…
MAGA
There’s a difference between being a lonely voice in the crowd being looked at by everyone and being one of thousands of voices feeling like you can finally speak out without all the eyes being solely focused on you.
I don’t see this as useless at all if it helps people step out of the shadow of abuse and start opening up and healing.
Now we can all be victims! #metoo
I started looking at the other side. These men took advantage of a pool of women who were so distracted by the “promise” of becoming rich and famous that they were willing to sacrifice everything, including their standards/honor!!! With just a quick glance at Harvey Weinstein aka Shrek, and you know it wasn’t for the physical attraction! Not “…blaming the victim”,